Days After Michael Moore’s New Movie Premieres He Receives Some Major Bad News

Michael has a new movie out but he just got some really bad news. A report has surfaced revealing that he owes some vendors a lot of money.

In early June, Boston Light & Sound, Inc. filed a lawsuit against Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival. In the claim, BL&S stated that a total payment of $256,500 had been due by September 30, 2017, for their work on the 2017 film festival. “TCFF paid a $100,0000 deposit towards the Contract Amount on July 12, 2017,” legal docs claimed. “BL&S performed all of its obligations pursuant to the contract. However, since the 2017 film festival, TCFF has only paid an additional $2,000 toward the outstanding balance owed.” That brings the alleged balance down to $159,055.

Chapin Cutler, the President of Boston Light & Sound, a 13-year Film Fest collaborator, “said his 2017 contract with Film Fest, totaling $256,500, was comparable to past contracts and pricing has not changed,” the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported. In April 2018, Michael Moore revealed that the Traverse City Film Fest “ran a rare deficit last year.”

“It became apparent the festival had overextended,” Cutler alleged. “The festival’s eyes were a bit bigger than their finances could handle, and we were the people left standing, holding an invoice.”

“Over the past decade, TCFF has paid Boston Light and Sound more than 2 million dollars including $100,000 for its services last year,” the statement continued. “It is the fiduciary duty of the TCFF Board of Directors to ensure that TCFF has received the equipment and services that it paid for, and no less.”

The dispute caught the attention of respected film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, who spoke up against “slanderous” remarks he says Moore made during a Toronto Film Festival Q&A. In a video with his daughter and colleague Jessie Maltin, the critic addressed Moore personally. “I’m extremely uncomfortable doing something like this,” Maltin wrote. “I have no desire to fight or argue with anyone—but I must stand up for my dear friends at Boston Light and Sound.”

I’m extremely uncomfortable doing something like this. I have no desire to fight or argue with anyone—but I must stand up for my dear friends at Boston Light and Sound. #MichaelMoore is slandering them—and I can’t stand idly by while that happens. pic.twitter.com/Skw1saBSiW